Famous Royce Gracie quotes!

[Dio]

About Royce throwing in the towel in UFC#3. Royce never fought the guy. Some of you are making it sound like he got beat and had to throw in the towel. He was legitimatley injured in the fight before with Kimo. Other guys have had lesser injuries and just quit right there. Royce actually walked out into the ring for his next fight. He didn't want to quit and drop out of the tournament. He wanted to keep fighting. He just waited as long as he could before he had to come to reality and realize that he was too injured to fight.

Steve Jenum dropped out in UFC 4 for a minor hand injury? WTF! In UFC#1 the kickboxer Gerard Gordou broke his freaking hand and didn't drop out. Royce was limping after his fight with Kimo.

But as far as Royces comments, I think he is a dork to and is only making a dork of himself. I think he said once that Carlson sells black belts. Well Carlson Gracie black belt Wallid Ismael bought the super dexule black belt.

I'm not on a raging Royce fan but the fact that he dropped out in UFC#3 doesn't show anything against him. He tried to stay in and he wanted to stay in. I think Royce would whoomp Harald Howard.

[jorge]

Homophibic gracies

I am starting to hate this family. First they talk about peace and respect and they are completely homophobic which, by the way, it is very common in the martial art world. Just to say guys you should know a bit more psychology and less punching. What you hate most in others is what you hate most of yourself.
As Freud said "Boxing is the public representation of homosexuality"
Now do you prefer the mount or the rear mount position? Maybe the shower after

[cakegirl]

Oh my god, way to resurrect a thread from the dead!

My favourite Royce Gracie quote was what he said to my friend Louise last year when she was teasing him about being so "awesome".

"I only have one feeling, and you broke it!"

[Mr. Miyagi]

I think the sons of Rorion felt like they were the ones who put things on the line in marketing bjj to the world. They had the Gracie challenge in the old days, Rorion and Royce worked tirelessly to make the UFC what it was at the time, Rickson fought in Japan, and meanwhile, all the other elite bjj fighters were just sitting in Brazil fighting and teaching for peanuts. The Gracies made their success possible. So I think they were just trying to protect what they did, because all these other guys came along afterwards riding their coattails, seeking fame and fortune, that the Gracies had worked so hard for.
Royce couldn't have meant to be so disrespectful, he was just trying to slow those guys down from taking a piece of his pie. I'm sure he respects Mario Sperry, and Vitor Belfort, and all the other guys.

[Junka]

I think the sons of Rorion felt like they were the ones who put things on the line in marketing bjj to the world. They had the Gracie challenge in the old days, Rorion and Royce worked tirelessly to make the UFC what it was at the time, Rickson fought in Japan, and meanwhile, all the other elite bjj fighters were just sitting in Brazil fighting and teaching for peanuts.

Exactly.
Some of you probably too young to remember but, before the Gracie's brought BJJ to the USA, there weren't a great many, if any BJJ clubs in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia etc... If you train in these disciplines you have the Gracie's to thank for the popularity that made it possible.
Royce didn't establish BJJ by having BJJ tournaments either, people at the time would have just ignored that, he did via challenges and the UFC.

As to dorky comments. If any of you were interviewed on a regular basis, over several years, especially in a language which is not your native tongue I guarantee you'll make an idiot out of yourselves sometimes. Put anyone under a microscope and you won't like everything you see.

Having made the UFC and, MMA having become a popular sport in it's own right then of course it has excelled beyond it's creators. It'd be pretty sad if it hadn't to be honest.

[fenwick99]

I love Royce, but he should have fought and defeated a guy like Coleman or Kerr
in 1998 or 99 before talking so much. I think he got lucky against Ken the first time and
when he beat Severn he choked out a wrestler with great technique but questionable conditioning. His best match was the draw vs. Ken- awesome display of positions and strategy. No one can be a nonstriker today- guys are so good at blocking or countering subs that you must have great boxing and muay thai or you're nothing.

[Junka]

No one can be a nonstriker today- guys are so good at blocking or countering subs that you must have great boxing and muay thai or you're nothing.

Fully agreed.
MMA has developed and moved on from the early UFC days. IMO it's still in it's infancy with lots of exciting developments yet to come.

[Mr. Miyagi]

my essay on this

Yea, but anyway, the point is, that the Royce and Rorion created huge economic opportunities for MMA by generating interest in it. Other bjj guys, aspiring MMA fighters, promoters, dvd and vhs producers, and god-only-knows how many others, came running looking for fame and fortune.

I know they said some stuff about Mario Sperry and other Carlson guys. All those guys are living the American dream now...good money, nice house, good life for their family, and it's all because of Rorion and Royce. Mario and Murillo because millionaires selling those tapes because Royce made that possible.
That even goes for any MMA star out there now. Before the Gracies it MA was all about standup, punching kicking elbows knees. If you follow the timeline, starting from the early 90's to the late 90's, everything that got turned upside down in MA was because of Royce Gracie.
To add to that, some of the early performances in MMA by Carlson's guys were very poor. The first time I saw Mario Sperry and Carlson jr was in Extreme. Both of them couldn't do anything about their opponents holding on to the fence. Sperry ended up on all fours and bleeding everywhere, just because he couldn't get Zinoviev to the ground! Same goes for Wallid, when he first fought on the international stage in the UFC against Takahashi, he also wore himself out trying to drag Takahashi away from the fence and eventually lost. And then Conan Silveira getting KO'd by Maurice Smith and armbarred by the much smaller Sakuraba didn't help Carlson's guys much either.
On the flipside, Rickson was still able to beat the much bigger Yamamoto in Japan, even though Yamamoto had his arm looped around the ropes for the whole fight.
Carlson's guys made it look like you didn't need to know much to counter BJJ, just hold onto something and don't let them take you down, they're so bad you can fight them with your free arm. Everything Rorion was saying about fights ending up on the ground and the Gracie juijitsu techniques being the best way to go, wasn't convincing unless he could distance himself and Royce from Carlson's team.

And then outside of bjj, stronger and more athletic guys (than the Gracies) started training in grappling. So Rorion and Royce had to say stuff to convince people to still buy BJJ instead of training at a hybrid gym, like Frank Shamrock's style. Frank had only a couple years of training experience when he was on top of the world. Eventually, aspiring MMA guys (and BJJ fighters who wanted to move to MMA) ended up doing Frank Shamrock's style of crosstraining, and even Frank now probably can't compete with the tougher guys who started training like him.

Yea, maybe Royce said some things he shouldn't have. It makes sense why, but he wasn't very gracious back then. Probably Rorion influenced him back then too.
Royce also should never have gone to Brazil for the bjj match with Wallid. He hadn't competed in sport bjj in many years, and hadn't even trained with top sport bjj guys in a few years either. It was big news when he lost, but it shouldn't have been. And Wallid should thank Royce too, because he got to make a lot of money and be famous for doing something that any competitive black belt in Brazil could have done. Maybe without a gi on Royce would beat Wallid, but even so, it would have taken him an hour or more to do that.
But besides those few years when everyone was trying to go from being dirt poor to making a good life for their families, Royce has always been pretty damn nice to everyone. Quite a bit more gracious and pleasant than Rorion, Rickson, and Royler for sure. Royce and Renzo are really among the nicest guys out there.
And Royce did continue to put himself out there, even being weaker than his opponents and past his prime. After the Wallid match, he fought Sakuraba twice and beat him once, fought Yoshida and whooped his ass harder than other ranked fighters, subbed Akebono in a circus match for money, and then bravely faced and got beaten down by Matt Hughes. Renzo has also stepped up. But Ralph and Royler have dabbled in the new MMA and gotten beaten down bad.

Even Ken Shamrock, who hates Royce, should still thank Rorion for putting together a tournament in 1994 that made him rich and famous. I disagree that Royce got lucky against Ken in that first fight. Ken was unprepared, but that's his fault, not luck. Ken saw a guy in a kimono that was willing to grapple, so he assumed that Royce was basically just a judo fighter. He went for a not-so-technical ankle lock that wasn't there and then gave his back to smaller, weaker guy that wouldn't have been able to hurt him from the top. Ken's mistakes, not luck. In the second fight he didn't really do much, he just used his size and strength to stay on top in the guard. He wasn't able to do any damage and he certainly didn't want to take any chances by grappling for better position or going for a submission. He landed that punch in overtime, that's about it. I wouldn't call that fight a chess match, not much happened. Chess match would be more like Sakuraba/Newton, most of Noguiera's fights, Frank Sham/Jeremy Horn. In chess, the players are required to move their pieces and change positions. Ken didn't want to do that, and Royce was too small and weak to do anything other wait forever for an opportunity.

So, in the end, I don't think any MMA fighter out there can really complain about Royce and Rorion. Their lives are better for it.

[fenwick99]

I agree

I agree that mma has evolved, but the early UFCs were closer to being a real street fight than the current sport. The gi for armbar leverage, ligature strangulation, and the grip- plus headbutts, still the best strike in the martial arts. I think Royce could have been 400% better if he would have done boxing, muay thai, freestyle, greco, and sambo when he was younger. That said, his pure sub skill was superb for any era. Marc Laimon is totally off-base when he says the Royce can't grapple- did Marc beat Akebono, Severn, Shamrock, Pardoel, Pat Smith, or Sak? And taking the gi away from Royce was like taking an FMA guy's stick!

[Hardball]

Royce was an awesome fighter and will always be a legend. I think part of the problem with his quotes is that English is not his native language.

[spencerhawes]

Yeah I also think the Gracie's reign is over long before that Japanese Sakuraba owned him. He is just a trash talker man , part of the game basically.

[Hardball]

Yeah I also think the Gracie's reign is over long before that Japanese Sakuraba owned him. He is just a trash talker man , part of the game basically.

He happened to be a Judo Black Belt. How Ironic!